2018 Joseph Drouhin, Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru, Les Folatieres

For reports and full tasting notes, go toTim Atkin MW's website.

The 2018 Puligny-Montrachet Les Folatières 1er Cru comes from a long-term contract between the Drouhins and the owner. It has quite a strict bouquet of Granny Smith apples, hints of fennel and lemongrass lending complexity with time. The palate is very well balanced with a fine bead of acidity and quite saline in the mouth, showing good midpalate weight. It clams up toward the finish, so that it feels less persistent than the Meursault Genevrières tasted alongside. Give it time.

The 2018 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Folatières is consistent with my assessment a year ago, opening in the glass with scents of white peach, golden orchard fruit, flowers and pastry cream. Medium-bodied, ample and fleshy, with an open-knit core of fruit, succulent acids and a charming, textural profile, it's already showing well.

One of their longest contracts for the grapes, back to the early 1960s. Cask sample. Creamy, rich aroma of deep lees, giving a savoury quality to the ripe and piercing bright citrus fruit. Mouth-filling and quite spicy, not as rich in the middle as I expected from the nose but long and stony on the finish. (JH)